Whole Wheat Einkorn, Wild Blueberry, Earl Grey, Vegan Muffins

Muffins

By some miracle of the Fairy Queen in the woods, we seem to still have power. In fact, Henry, is far weaker than we thought it would be. Still, the forest is dancing around us. Bending and blowing, partnering with rain falling from the grey sky above us.

Not long ago, we met for a book club meeting to watch The Mirror Crack’d by Agatha Christie, when the film proved unobtainable, we instead watched the movie of our current book. The House of Sand and Fog. I made popcorn, and people brought brownies and chips… And I made these muffins.

I thought I would share my recipe though some of it is a long time in the making, so these muffins take some planning. So let me start with that. Lemon Balm honey, is super simple to make. You just take a bunch of fresh lemon balm, cut it up and further mash it into as close to a powder as you can make it into. Open a medium sized jar of honey add in at least a table spoon of the herb. Mix it for a bit. Cap it and put it in a window that gets good sun. Mix it every other day, and when the herbs fall to the bottom of the jar turn the jar upside down and keep up with your mixing regimen. Turn the jar round so that other sides of the jar get sunlight and heat as well. It should stay in the window at least two weeks. Then it will be lemon balm infused honey. It tastes wonderful. I use it in all kinds of stuff. Here I used it in the honey glaze for these muffins.

The recipe is simple. First you want to mix together your dry ingredients.

4 cups whole wheat einkorn flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt (1/2 tea spoon if your butter is salt free.)
1/2 cup maple sugar
3 table spoons (or the equivalent of 3 eggs worth,) of egg substitute powder. (I have issues eating eggs. So I add the dry powder of amount of egg substitute into the dry ingredients. Then I add the 3 eggs worth of water to the wet ingredients which then gets added and mixed with the dry ingredients. You can also be simpler than I am if eating egg is something you can do and just crack and beat 3 eggs and mix them in with the wet ingredients and then mix the wets into the dries.)
The contents of 1 tea bag of Earl Grey tea

Now for the wet ingredients

1 1/3rd cups of butter milk
4 table spoons melted butter (or if you can’t consume dairy try Earth Balance Butter, a vegan option.)
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 table spoons of honey.
The water for the egg sub in the recommended quantity for 3 eggs. Or just 3 eggs.
1/2 cup to 1 cup of wild blueberries

Mix wet ingredients together and dump them into the dry ingredients. Mix well.  Once the batter is mixed add in the blue berries and mix again. Preheat the oven to 425. Prepare the muffin tin with paper liners in each of the cups, and fill each cup all the way up. Place muffins into the oven and lower the temperature of the oven to 375. It should take about 25 minutes. Once baked, remove muffins from the oven and allow them to fully cool before you add the lemon balm honey glaze.

Lemon Balm Honey Glaze

2-3 teaspoons of the premade lemon balm honey from out of the jar on the window sill.
2 tea spoons of water
Confectioners sugar in whatever amount you need to make a nice thick glaze you can press onto your muffins with the back of a spoon. (You can see from my pictures I could have used a little more.)

These were absolutely delicious. And they smelled amazing. And I still had plenty of lemon balm honey to use for other things or even just for a cup of tea.

I really love working in Einkorn, but the wet to dry ratio is a bit different than what is typical. What is more, it likes a slightly higher baking temperature than is standard. Einkorn, is high in protein, it is also the first grain humans have been shown to have eaten. It is also high in fiber. It contains gluten, though it’s gluten structure is different than what we typically eat in modern forms of grain flours. Some people who can’t eat gluten do just fine on Einkorn… Some do not. So please be cautious and don’t give this bread to anyone who really shouldn’t have it like someone with a diagnosis from a licensed physician of celiacs. Einkorn, has a flavor that is a bit nutty and it might be stronger than the flavor we are used to. Some love it, others don’t. I love it because it offers so many health benefits and because it has such a long history.

Thank you for reading,
And enjoy the muffins
Amanda of Wildflower Farm

 

 

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